President Joe Biden seems to be off to a good start as he prepares to take on unprecedented crises and reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s signature policies.
According to a poll from Monmouth University released Wednesday, Biden is already more popular than Trump. In the poll, 54 percent of respondents said that they approve of his performance in office, making the presidential rating higher than it ever was during Trump’s term in the White House.
Nonetheless, Americans are still divided along partisan lines, with virtually all Democrats approving of Biden’s performance in office and only 15 percent of Republican voters agreeing with them. However, nearly five in 10 independents said that they approve of the job the Democrat has done so far.
Six in 10 respondents said that they feel optimistic about the future under Biden while 3 in 10 disagreed. Virtually all Democrats and a small minority of Republicans expressed optimism about the policies the new commander-in-chief will pursue. The inverse was the case in 2017, when Trump first took office.
Still, most Americans want to see the two parties work together. Seven in 10 said that GOP lawmakers should work together with Biden instead of trying to keep him in check. Overall, around 60 percent of respondents said that they have at least some confidence that the president will be able to reach across the aisle.
Director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute Patrick Murray said that Biden seems to be in a stronger position than Trump was at this point of his presidency.
“Overall, there seems to be more goodwill for Biden than there was for Trump, but it really breaks down along partisan lines. Right now, more people identify as Democrats than Republicans. Bipartisanship is certainly an aspiration for the Biden era, but public optimism about achieving it is a bit muted.”
The poll found that Americans care most about kitchen-table issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, jobs, healthcare and the economy. It also established that many are concerned about domestic terrorism in the aftermath of the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol building.
“The top priorities tend to focus on bread and butter issues, with one exception: the growing threat of domestic terrorism posed by hate groups. At the other end of the spectrum, the anarchy of left wing radicals, while important, does not seem to pose quite the same existential threat,” Murray explained.
As The Inquisitr reported, a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports found that a majority of Republican likely voters believe Trump should start a new political party.